


Finesse and Fury

by silveradept



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sports, F/F, Women's Ice Hockey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 00:45:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16230710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Practice for the Remnant Women's Hockey League  is anything but routine for Blake. For once, though, Yang shows more than just her legendary temper.





	Finesse and Fury

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tidelinear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tidelinear/gifts).



All right, everyone," Coach Ozpin said after blowing the whistle, "we're going to work our full-sheet five-on-five for a few minutes. Miss Rose, Miss Schnee, Miss Nikos, forwards. Miss Belladonna, Miss Ren, you're their defense partners. Miss Arc, you're in net. All of you defend the north goal and attack the south."

After the six had assembled on one side of the ice, Coach continued the assignments.

"Miss Valkyrie, Miss Xiao Long, Miss Adel, forwards. Miss Amitola, Miss Scarletina, defense. Miss Poledina, you're in net."

It was always different playing against your linemates, Blake thought, but all the coaches encouraged it so that you could learn their tendencies and how they reacted. Coach Goodwitch encouraged changing combinations all the time to see if there were better chemistries that might develop from exposure to a new style.

Blake already knew a lot about the combination in front of her - Nora preferred to dump and chase, and liked mixing it up in the corners, Coco tended to slap something on net or close to it, and Yang had a crash the net approach that was nearly unstoppable once she had enough steam behind her.

Yang also tended to be overly aggressive when in the offensive zone, Blake added, clearing a bad dump from Nora onto Weiss's stick, which often left her defense partner covering the blue line by herself. Blake often felt alone when Yang joined the rush. Sometimes the extra pressure meant a goal, but a lot of the time, it meant an easy clear or a breakaway opportunity for the other side.

Sometimes playing with someone many you really knew how to handle them if you were across from them. Blake picked Yang's pocket, stepping aside from her rush, and put one on Ruby's tape, but Penny made a great glove save to make sure nothing came of the opportunity.

Blake belatedly remembered Yang also had a temper, once she saw Yang pick up speed around the back of the net and start skating in her direction, a look of pure murder behind her face shield. Blake picked her moment and poke-checked the puck away before Yang could rush into the zone.

After that, there were a few moments of free fall from Yang's shoulder check before crashing down to the ice, and Coach Goodwitch's whistle.

"Yang, how nice of you to volunteer to be the person sitting in the box while we work on power play drills."

"It was a legit hit, Coach!" Yang protested.

"Not when you take a run at someone like that. Any referee would be their pick of calls for that hit. Hit the box, Goldilocks."

Coach Goodwin skated over to Blake as Yang skated off, grumbling. 

"Are you okay?" she asked, offering a hand.

"Yeah," Blake said, accepting the help to get up and retrieving her stick.

"Good. Go to the bench and let the doctor look at you. If he says it's okay, you'll be on the second rush."

Blake skated over to the bench, testing to see if anything had been seriously hurt in that fall. She knew the doctor would be more thorough, but if anything did hurt, she would get back on the ice faster by focusing on that.

As it was, the team was done with power play before the doctor was satisfied she hadn't collected a concussion or other internal injury and let her step back on the ice.

"Hey," Yang said after practice. "I didn't mean anything from that hit."

"I know," Blake said. "You just got so mad you didn't think."

"I got frustrated," Yang said, as if that distinction made a difference. "Everyone out there was making me look like I didn't belong, and it all built up until it exploded."

"What do you mean by 'didn't belong'?"

"Oh, come on! Ozpin deliberately stacked the practice lines so that all the finesse players were on one end and all the physical ones were on the other. We didn't stand a chance against you. I mean, I'm used to Ruby skating circles around everyone, but that meant I had a role to fill to keep her safe. But when everybody can do everything better than you, it's frustrating. I know I'm just here as a big dumb enforcer, but--"

Yang stopped as Blake squeezed the remaining air out of her in a big hug.

"Stop saying that!" Blake snapped.

"Huh?"

"I don't think you're dumb," Blake said quietly. "I think you're aggressive and rash and you take too many chances to join the rush, but that doesn't mean you're dumb."

Yang frowned.

"I think it's kind of cute, actually," Blake continued, the words continuing in a rush, "the way that you go around and make sure that nobody messes with your team without paying the price."

"Cute?" Yang said flatly.

"Yeah," Blake said. "In a totally terrifying to the opposition way."

Yang huffed and then relaxed more into the hug, giving Blake one in return

"I wish I could skate and stickhandle better," Yang said. "It's tough having a prodigy for a sister. She makes it look easy, and she doesn't even know how she does it." 

"I think I can help with that," Blake said, smiling. "Can you teach me how to avoid getting hit better?"

"No," Yang said bluntly. "But I can teach you how to knock someone flat if they're taking a run at you."

Blake seemed to consider it, and then shrugged.

"Deal," she said, giving Yang another squeeze.

Practice from that point on was pretty routine, even with a few extra minutes spent after working on learning their new skills, so when coach Ozpin asked Blake, Yang, and Jane Arc to stay after, Blake didn't understand why.

"Miss Arc wanted to work on shots through screens," Coach Ozpin said. "I think you two will be the best to help her with this."

"Miss Xiao Long, your goal is to collect the puck at center ice, get around Miss Belladonna, and score a goal on Miss Arc. Miss Belladonna, your job is to prevent this and ice the puck."

"Sounds easy," Yang said, smiling.

"There are some caveats," Coach Ozpin said smiling. "Miss Xiao Long cannot instigate a hit, but must instead use her stick and skates to get around Miss Belladonna."

Yang's smile turned into a scowl.

"To keep things fair," Coach Ozpin continued, "Miss Belladonna cannot use her stick to poke away the puck, but must instead use her body to force Miss Xiao Long off the puck before she can ice it."

Blake looked at Coach Ozpin, mirroring Yang's incredulity. They were pretty sure nobody else knew of their after-practice sessions.

"First to seven wins," Coach said, putting a puck on the center ice spot.

Blake kept Yang to the outside the first few times, letting Jane handle shots from sharp angles. It seemed easy enough to herd Yang, now that she couldn't just bash her way through to her goal.

Then Yang pulled the string on her with a move Blake had been absolutely sure Yang would never have had the patience to do and fired a shot that Jane barely grabbed out of the air.

Blake took a chance and stepped into Yang just after she came across the blue line on the next run, flattening her. Blake managed to ice the puck before collapsing onto Yang.

"It's on now," Yang said, a mischievous grin on her face, and gave Blake a quick hug in acknowledgement.

"Bring it," Blake retorted, with a similar smile and a return hug.

Yang still wasn't going to have a lot of success in the deke department, Blake saw, as Yang tried to practice some of the things she'd shown her. Blake suspected Yang was probably thinking the same about her and body contact, as she tried to find somewhere solid to hit and Yang shrugged her off. It would take a while for each of them to learn from the other. 

The hugs were worth it, though.


End file.
